Virginia Museum of History & Culture President and CEO Jamie Bosket (File photo courtesy Virginia Historical Society)
After polling thousands of members and visitors, the 187-year-old Virginia Historical Society is taking on a new identity. Established in 1831 by 28 men who sought to discover, procure and preserve the natural, civil and literary history of the state, the Virginia Historical Society will now be known as the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
“We may be the commonwealth’s oldest cultural institution, and one of the most distinguished history organizations in the country, but we are ready for meaningful changes and progress — to do more and be more for the people of Virginia and beyond,” Jamie O. Bosket, the museum's president and CEO, said in a news release. Museum officials did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
The Virginia Historical Society building was originally the Battle Abbey, designed by Philadelphia architects Bissell and Sinkler in 1911 as a home for Confederate art and records on land donated by the state of Virginia. As Richmond magazine's Harry Kollatz Jr. writes in his book "Richmond in Ragtime:"
The Battle Abbey would contain statuary, portraits, flags, books and manuscripts relating to Confederate history. The structure was to provide a gathering place for veterans and related groups. A Museum of the Confederacy already existed in Richmond, founded in 1896, in the old Brockenbrough mansion where Jefferson Davis and his family lived during the war. This Battle Abbey, however, was viewed more as a place of contemplation, a Lost Cause holy of holies.
Virginian Charles Baltzell “Broadway” Rouss, a wartime Richmond merchant and dealer with blockade runners, joined the cavalry in late 1864, but the war left him destitute. He scraped together meager funds to open a shop in New York City that grew into a nationwide franchise. The accumulation of a fortune did not satisfy him, and in old age, going blind and seeking a legacy project, Rouss offered $100,000 to veteran and memorial organizations to build a Confederate battle abbey provided that other Southerners matched the amount. He died in 1902 without his dream realized.
According to a history published by the VHS, an addition to the original Battle Abbey, Memorial Hall, was competed in 1921 to house archives and a portrait collection. The historical society was established much earlier, in 1831, and acquired Battle Abbey in 1946 through a merger with the Confederate Memorial Institute. Battle Abbey remained a separate building until 1959, when a four-story west addition was completed. As the VHS collection grew, so did the building, with expansions in 1992, 1998 and 2006. In 2012, former VHS President and CEO Paul Levengood removed a time capsule from the original 1912 cornerstone of the Battle Abbey containing items such as newspapers, postcards, Confederate army papers and currency.
Previously a member-based organization, the VHS converted to free admission in 2010. In recent decades, its mission has expanded to feature more Native American and African-American history, and it launched Unknown No Longer — a database of Virginia slave names and biographical details — in 2012. The VHS also published, in 1995 and 2002, a Guide to African American Manuscripts, which is available online. The signature exhibition called “The Story of Virginia,” which is also available online, interprets 16,000 years of Virginia history from the earliest artifacts of Native Americans to the beginning of the 21st century.
The name change announced Wednesday was considered over several months. After the polling was concluded, it was decided to call the building a museum, but keep the Virginia Historical Society as the umbrella organization. Members were notified of the new name earlier this month, and the public will begin seeing the transition over the next few weeks. "The hope," states the news release, "is that the new name will convey a more welcoming persona that will help promote visitation and attract a new and more inclusive generation of history lovers."
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is located at 428 N. Boulevard in Richmond. Hours are Monday to Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for the galleries and museum shop and Monday to Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for the library.
